Hardware

Towed Hydrophone Arrays

Bio-Waves, Inc. has researchers and engineers with expertise in the design, fabrication and field-application of towed hydrophone arrays. We have built several towed array systems for use in numerous marine mammal research projects in a variety of marine environments, ranging from the arctic to the tropics. We have custom designed hydrophone arrays and components (e.g. pre-amplifiers) for specific research goals and species groups, such as 'dual' towed hydrophone arrays to improve the accuracy of localizations for tracking killer whales and sperm whales. We are constantly working to improve our hydrophone arrays, and are currently integrating additional sensors to provide more precise information on species locations and additional variables (e.g. depth, tilt, magnetic bearing) that can be used to improve localization accuracy. During the summer of 2013, we developed and field tested a prototype portable, towed hydrophone system for use on small vessels and other small mobile platforms.